hedge trimming

School fete this morning. We raised over £1100, which is good considering there are only 30 odd kids at the school. Well done us.
Lunchtime we spoke to our contractor and gave him a cheque for the kit order. He thinks he will be on site in a couple of weeks, with new machine I think. Discussed one or two things we need to pin down later on. I've great faith in him. Everything I've seen he's done has been good, and he is very professional and friendly. A find, no doubt.

I've decided it's too late to move and replant hedges, so am resorting to plan A, which is to trim the existing hawthorn hedge down to get the sitelines for the access onto the road. I'll fill the gaps with new hawthorn in due course. There is a handy gap in the hedge which may be usefull for access for the contractor.
As I am generally unfit, I used a handsaw to trim the hedges. Hard work, but satisfying, and I can feel I've moved the project on a wee bit myself.
Bonfire soon. I'll film that. Which is worrying.

ordered!

kit was confirmed as being ordered now. windows take longest as they are a "special" order.

"We can now finalise the window order with the suppliers and get that placed. We will also instruct the kit manufacturer to begin preparation of the panelised production drawings for your kit. We will let you know as soon as we are able to establish an approximate delivery date."

Goodie.

Don't know if it's the bloke in the photo with the NHS corrective specs on, who will be making it, but you get the general idea.

Building Warrant

Documents arrived today for the warrant. I didn't remember submitting 40 odd drawings, but there you go. I have found the process fairly painless but longer than it should be. Having inside info, I know that this is because of poor resourcing.
It would have been quicker if I had paid for an SER Ltd engineers certificate. If you don't know what that is, and are thinking about building in Scotland, listen up.
Under the Scottish building standards system, you have the option of submitting Certificates of Design. These can be submitted and when done so, the Local Authority are obliged to accept them at face value and not question the design the certificate covers. They can ask for drawings for inspection purposes, but that's it. Great?
Well hold on.
There are only two schemes at the moment. One for structural engineering, the other for energy. The structural one is well bedded in, the energy one not. In fact it is seldom used as of yet.
The problem comes with the structural side when you get behind the process. What is supposed to happen is that the engineer (lets say a timber framed house) is supposed to check and certify the complete structure. Ground report, foundation design, timber frame, roof trusses, cladding etc. Supposed to check it all. They should, some of them will charge in excess of £3000 for a small house.
Here is the rub, which I have come to realise is actual fact in some cases. The kit producer will do calculations and issue a design certificate for their part....ok they will issue a design certificate. The engineer you pass the design certificate to, will not, in some cases (I'm sure there are loads who will do it correctly) recheck the calculations. They may just think....ah i know them, tick box.

So what is the £3000 plus for? You figure it out.

A contractor told me recently that a client of his was charged £2500 for a simple two storey extension, by an engineer. Another engineer charged another client £500 for a new house.

So, tight as i am, i thought to myself. I can do a ground report, I can get all the calcs from the kit engineer (it's in the contract), and I can pass it to Building Control for them to check, at their expense, as they are obliged to do. It's what building warrant fees are for after all.
But as they are poorly resourced, they have to send it out to the same engineers who you could approach for an SER Ltd certificate.
I suppose it depends on timescales. And being a tightwad.

another short video.

wooooooooooooot

excited about the building warrant and waiting to get going. emailed the kit company yesterday asking them to order the kit (windows may take 12 weeks, as they are a special order) but not heard back. will phone tommorrow. in the meatime, here is a short video.

Building Warrant imminent

I was told today that my Building Warrant has been decided and the paperwork will be with me this week! This allows me to finally order the timber frame and get a delivery date.
Once we have that, my contractor can programme in his site works, foundations and underbuilding, and anything else he wants to get on with.

Now we need to move at least some of the hedge to the front of the site, and replant it. I had hoped it would be done by now. The hedge will either take or not. If it doesn't, we'll replant the same species, Hawthorn.

some more piccies from google sketchup

house design

the house is designed by Hebridean Homes, a timber kit house company run by Dualchas Architecture. we have chosen a LH402 housetype, and have added some chimneys and copes to reflect local architectural styles. the kit isn't cheap, but should give value for money long term, as it's quality.

the key is to get a good builder on board, and we think we have done well. we are handing the building of the house almost completely over to one contractor. hopefully he can get started soon!